Episode 506: Consumed – Recap and Discussion

by Brian HuntingtonNovember 16th, 2014

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Time for a new episode of everyone’s favorite post-apocalyptic zombie drama! Last week we spent some time with Abraham and Glenn’s group, and this week we’re going to see what happened to Beth and Daryl after they drove off, chasing the car with the white cross. Will they find Beth? Will they find romance? Will they find an otherwise untouched Cracker Barrel and spend the rest of their lives there? Find out now!

We start with a flashback (since this episode is pre-Daryl coming out of the bushes, I guess this is a flashback-within-a-flashback). We get to see Carol leave after parting with Rick. She drives away and breaks down in her car (emotionally, not mechanically). She’s hurt more than she has let on.

Eventually, she sets up in a law firm, not too far from the prison. It’s here, while she’s setting up rain collectors, that she sees smoke in the distance. She takes off and finds the prison burning.

So that’s the story of how Carol came back to the prison and started tracking her friends.

Back to the present (or, well, more recent present), Daryl and Beth are tailing the Grady car. Low on gas, Carol suggests running them off the road and forcing the info out of them. Daryl doesn’t go for it.

They follow the other car into Atlanta. When the other car stops for a bit, they stop as well, but they’re unable to start the car a second time and the other car gets away. Carol says she knows a place nearby they can hole up in. It’s a shelter for abused women that she had spent time at in her time before the apocalypse.

They settle in a room with bunk beds. Daryl sees a book called “Treating Survivors of Childhood Abuse.” Carol wonders about starting over in a place designed to help people heal and start over. Carol says she doesn’t know what she would have done if Daryl hadn’t found her by the car near the church.

They hear banging somewhere on their floor. Some walkers are behind some frosted glass doors. When Carol moves to take care of them, Daryl tells her she doesn’t have to, and they leave them be.

The next morning Carol wakes up to find that Daryl has taken care of them and even built a funeral pyre for them. Carol stands by Daryl and just says, “Thank you.”

Carol packs Tom Sawyer into her bag (remember Carol and the girls were talking about Tom Sawyer when they were walking the railroad tracks and she was also reading it to the kids in the prison. Hey Carol, there are other books) and the two move out to try and find the car they were chasing.

On the way to a tall building, Daryl lights a pad of paper on fire and tosses it to distract and draw off a pack of walkers. New strategy!

They go up a parking structure and come to a pedestrian bridge. People had camped out there and apparently died in their sleep, either zipped up in their sleeping bags or zipped up in one of three tents. They kill the ones in the sleeping bags and check them for supplies but the tents are too much trouble to deal with so they leave them. This will cost them.

They squeeze through a chained door into the building. They find a lookout spot and Carol alludes to her time with the girls and how awful it was. Daryl tells her that the reason he mentioned starting over was because they have to.

They spot a van on a bridge with a white cross painted on it and decide to investigate. On their way out of the building Noah gets the drop on them as they squeeze back through the chained doors. He holds them up. “No one has to get hurt, I just need weapons, that’s it.” Maybe Noah is planning to get Beth back? Too bad these guys don’t know they’re both looking for Beth.

Noah apologizes for what he’s about to do, and then cuts a tent open to stall them. When Carol takes aim at Noah, Daryl hits the gun, causing her to miss. Noah escapes. As they head after him Carol says she was just going to wound him. “He just a kid,” Daryl says. Daryl is awfully peaceful these days.

They make it to the bridge without further incident. The van is precariously hanging off the side of the bridge. Instead of one of them sitting on the bumper to help keep it from falling off the bridge, they both climb into the front. Seems like a bad idea. They find a stretcher that says GMH on the bottom. Carol says it could be “Grady Memorial Hospital.” By this time they’re pretty well surrounded by walkers. Low on ammo, they buckle into the front of the van and ride it as it falls off the bridge.

Daryl isn’t too much worse for the wear, but Carol has a pretty nasty bruise on her chest and needs help walking. They decide to scope out Grady to see what they can find out. From a nearby building they’re able to see cars with white crosses on the top of a parking structure next to the hospital. They stake it out.

Daryl asks Carol what she meant when she said he was different. She said he was like a child before, but now he’s a man. Then she relates her time at the shelter and how she went back to her husband after just a day and a half with Sophia and let him beat her up. At the prison she got to be who she always thought she would be but even that “burned up.” “Everything now just… consumes you,” she says. “We ain’t ashes,” Daryl replies, spawning a thousand bootleg t-shirts.

They hear bangs nearby and find one of Daryl’s arrows pinning a walker to the wall. Then they hear gun fire in the next room. Noah’s tussling with a walker. He manages to shove it off where it falls on an already injured Carol. Daryl helps her up then goes after Noah. Daryl body checks Noah into a bookshelf which falls on Noah, trapping him, a walker trying to get in through a door crack. “I helped you once, I ain’t helping you again,” Daryl says. Now the roles reverse and Carol asks Daryl to help him. It seems like he won’t but he relents.

Yet another flashback (there was another one earlier of Carol burning the bodies at the prison). This one is Carol just after the assault on Terminus. Again, there’s the backdrop of smoke. Definitely a recurring theme this episode.

They help Noah up and he starts worrying about The Grady Bunch hunting him down. Now they manage to figure out that they’re all trying to save the same person, just as a Grady car arrives.

They run to the building next door, and when Daryl stops to help Noah, Carol runs into the street and gets hit by the Grady car. Noah stops Daryl from running after her, telling him that the Grady’s will be able to help her. “We can get her back. We can get Beth back.” “What’s it gonna take?” Daryl asks. “A lot. They got guns. And people.” “So do we.”

Daryl and Noah steal a truck and head off, presumably back to the church, but maybe to an otherwise untouched Cracker Barrel where they will spend the rest of their lives.

And with that we are out! I believe we’re pretty much all caught up with everyone’s stories, right? Beth is being held at Grady. Noah and Daryl are (probably) creeping around in the bushes by the church. The Church group is washing off the blood of the Termites. And Abraham, Glenn, and company are discussing Eugene’s hair (I assume maybe that story is a little ahead, time-wise). But we will find out more next week!

Plop yer comments down below! We’ll take the most charming, winningest, cleverest, insightful comment (as judge by yours truly and my ragtag team of zombie enthusiasts) and that person will win a Robert Kirkman-signed Volume 22, which just came out!

We have an article discussing the possible Easter Eggs and Call-Backs in this episode! Check it out!

63 thoughts on “Episode 506: Consumed – Recap and Discussion”

I’m really excited for next weeks episode (more so than usual) but it looks like we’ll get to see a little bit of everyone next week but I’m excited we will see Rick and the main group again. But this episode was great, what really made it great were the little flashbacks we got of Carol from bits and pieces of season 4 where we didn’t see her, the scene of her crying in the car brought the feels too hard. Getting to see Atlanta again was great and it looked great, TWD obviously has a much larger budget lol I really hope Beth makes it out of all of this alive, also hope that we get to see some action next week and it isn’t delayed until the final episode which it probably will be but still excited anyhow

Also Morgan hurry the fuck up and find Ricks group, that clip from season 1 during the commercial break made me want you to join the group. I’m assuming he’ll show up next episode since they’re leaving the church? Lets hope so!

I’ve been so glad to see Carol really kick ass this season. Carol has become a great ally in the Zombie Apocalypse. So this episode really delved into how much she and Daryl have changed since the beginning. Seeing what’s happened to Atlanta drives home just how bad things are. But my fave moment was when Carol was talking about staying at the hospital with Sophia for a day and a half. She looked like she really can’t believe she was that person.
They’ve both evolving into who they need to be to survive. Loved the episode.

Man this episode was good… it was different from the rest in my opinion. The atmosphere of the episode was different; we can go and deal with it, but it may be safer to do the other option. For example, Carol and Daryl could have killed those cops, but decided to wait, which could’ve brought them closer to Beth. Or when Daryl wanted to leave Noah under the bookshelf and let him die. Instead, he went with Carol and that led to them knowing where Beth is. So, overall I thought it was a good episode. There was a lot of flashbacks that gave us some useful information about the past. It also ended with the answer to a question, but also raised new ones.

I feel like this episode and Beth’s episode could have been merged into one episode. I love dialog but there is just too much. It just doesn’t seem too realistic that Abraham’s group and Rick’s group meet up together after this rescue for Beth.

Daryl and Noah presumably behind him in the woods has to be after the “Self Help” group left, but Abraham & crew are only about 2 days out from the Church, when the herd is on the horizon, and Eugene drops his bomb-shell. They have slept once, and they have been on foot most of the time.

There is a mapped route, a known destination (DC), a known starting point (the Church), and a large building in Atlanta, they can leave a note if they all move out before reuniting.

Morgan however, was last seen at Terminus.

No one is looking for him, no one is waiting, he has the hunter’s marks to follow, but no idea what they mean, or who made the marks.

He is no longer in Rick’s home town, and only a few people know his face and they are in the church.

Carol and Daryl seem pretty relaxed with the walker encounters in this episode, until they hop into the van and flip it off of the bridge.

This episode is all about Daryl and Carol catching up and “Going back to the way it was” but Carol says that Daryl is a man now and has grown a lot since she was being beaten by her abusive husband. I think it is interesting how Daryl really takes cares about Carol’s emotional state throughout “Consumed” and saying she doesn’t have to kill every single walker they encounter (the walkers behind the glass door) because he can take some of the burden off of her. It really feels like Daryl has come a long way, and no longer operates like a lone wolf. I agree that Daryl is a different person now than he was in Season 1.

I loved the smoke/flame motif. It showed Carol at various points of the recent timeline, in and out of hope and despair. The theme of the characters questioning whether the fire is still burning is SPOT ON. It’s an emotional seesaw that the characters have to continually battle right now.

Tonight’s episode was great. For really showing the Daryl and carol relationship. I thought for sure carol was going into the hospital undercover. So I was shocked when she got plunked by the car. Team rick is gonna do work next week.

Tonights episode was great and showing what Carol had gone through in her life. I was also glad that Daryl dealt with the mother and child at the shelter, because i think that Carol has had her feel of kids being killed to last a lifetime. Every fan is now seeing that Carol is a strong woman that needs to have a a break so that she can relax and breath so that she can start over. I was not expecting the car to run into her and fling her onto the hood. Now Daryl is pissed and so will the guys back at the church. I guess Rick and Daryl will be kicking some ass next week.

I really liked this episode. it reminded me of the episodes when they were split up and also had flashbacks. I really think this is a great set up for how Daryl gets the family together and they go after Carol and Beth. The fact that they brought up some memories for Daryl and Carol really made this episode explode and make it the best of the season. The story of Noah being there and able to get the weapons away was a shock but a cool surprise

I like when they develop characters and all, but this was not a great episode by any means. I feel like this episode was unnecessary and was like filler at times. Not a lot of excitement and not a lot of progression of plot. This felt like killing time for a more explosive episode with the half-season finale coming up in two weeks. I alwaysike the show and it wasn’t bad, I just expect better

It was kind of nice to see carol’s little breakdown in the car in the opening scene. Showing her crying and yelling at the walker outside the window showed us that she is still vulnerable and that her mind may be fragile especially after having just gone all ‘rambo’ on terminius and all the rest of the shit storm she has endured.

I have to ask…the person covered up on the road when Carol and Daryl are fighting the walkers right before the van plunge..is that Morgan in hiding? At first I was thinking it was Noah following them but he tells them later that he thought they were following him. It has to be Morgan!!!! At least I hope.

I think Carol’s so damaged that has become a cold blooded killer at the tiniest sign if threat she like “not gonna happen, you’re going down”. I think she’s evolved to this due to her past but when Daryl let Noah under the bookcase (I think he did this on purpose to test her) her maternal side was stronger than her badass side. I mean, is not the same to her to take down a thread than taking down a boy who’s harmless. Noah stilling their guns was a threat. Noah trapped under a bookcase was a harmless kid to her

Daryl and Carol are probably the most damaged of the “family” emotionally speaking. That is why they are so close. They both suffered abuse and survived. Coming out stronger and knowing what it takes to survive. Because they’ve already experienced hell. This hell is just a different version. I loved this Daryl and Carol centered episode❤️

This was a great episode. One of the reasons I liked it so much was because like with the comic this is a predominately visual medium and in this episode there wasn’t as much dialogue as there normally is. Part of that I think was to show the depth of the relationship between Daryl and Carol. In the car before they fell all there was was the touching of hands and the head nod and that was all that was needed between them. Daryl didn’t pry because he knew when Carol was ready she would talk to him about what she went through. All of the flashbacks were silent and that meant the responsibility to show the emotion and inner turmoil Carol was going through was on the McBride and she did an amazing job portraying that without speaking at all.

That was such a cool episode, can’t wait for Rick’s group to come and kick some Grady Bunch arse! On another note, that was a massive hit Carol took. It isn’t looking to good for her at the moment, is it?

I thought this was a really good episode. I liked Carol and Daryl working together as a Team. They were already good together, but their bond seems to have deepened. I am excited to have the story get back to Rick and the Gang. And I do feel sorry for the folks at the Hospital because the Sheriff if coming to town. I would have liked it if when they were in the van, right before it went over, Daryl turns to Carol and says “Hi, I’m Darly Dixon. Welcome to Jackass!”

I loved watching the dilemma that Carol was working through in her head about who she is, I think she has had the most major change physically, and emotionally out of anyone in the show, and it’s interesting watching her fight with it, all while knowing she could never go back to the way she was!

Carol needs to recover ASAP. Also, why did Daryl cut her off when she was opening up about what happened with Tyreese? I want to see Carol talk about what she had to do to Lizzie. I do want to see Beth and Carol destroy the hospital. Carol Vs Dawn would be epic.

It took one woman to free the whole lot of of them from Terminus. I’m confident that with all of a Team Grimes they will bust Carol and Beth out and make the Grady Bunch pay. Before I saw Carol take that hit I would have thought her and Beth could fight there way out together, but I’m really worried about Carol now and I’m pretty sure someone is going to have to carry her out at this point.

Am I the only person here frustrated that we have gotten absolutely zero plot progressions these last 4 episodes. They all were happening at the same time, so we know that none of the characters were in actual danger. It could have been woven all together to make one cohesive story. They didn’t do that with the season premiere. It’s like if the whole 1st episode was Rick and Co at the slaughter house and right as Gleen is about to get bashed the episode ends. Then its an entire episode of Carol and Tyreese and then an entire episode of the people in the train car and then an entire episode of the backstory of the Terminus people. Then finally by episode 5 they escape. It was all told in 1 concise awesome episode. There is zero need to continue to drag out stories like this. Tell a compelling story, and advance the plot. This is basic story telling here. Enough themes TWD!

The way I see it, the plot of the whole series is survival. In this particular season, I take the plot as “hunt or be hunted”, which applied to Gareth & The Hunters and now Grady Memorial. The progression has them moved out from Terminus & towards DC…Daryl & Carol to find Beth. Now, it looks like there’s a diversion… a rescue mission to be had. All of this is a lot of action/plot progression for 6 eps in! I’m hoping you’re not disappointed thinking that reaching DC is the ONLY important thing this show has to offer & that they haven’t reached DC in 4 eps… that would only serve to speed the show along, skip the heart of what this show is truly about, & rush it right on towards an ending for the series! Survival…. that’s the plot & every episode shows progression!!
My opinion.

I have to agree with you, I think it is being a little bit slow, and they could make 4 episodes in really 2, from the last 2 episodes I probably enjoy 20 min out of 45. There is little bit to much of development of the guys and they should go more to the point. I think that the TV series does not want to catch up with the comic very soon but that has a easy solution, 2 issues per month in the comic, and 2-3 less episodes per season (more action a progress per episode)

If Carol can go all Rambo and get the entire posse back from a group of savage cannibals all by herself then hopefully Rick and crew will be able to come up with some strategy to get the girls back without too much trouble. After all, he’s a cop just like the Grady Bunch; and cops are reasonable people, right?

Seeing Atlanta in the state it was in, I really should invest in cardboard. That stuff was everywhere. Seems like it would be a lucrative investment now while the getting is good.

Oh, and I like all the clamoring for #Caryl (or #Darol ) to happen already. Yeah, pretty sure a bunk bed in what used to be a women’s shelter probably not an appropriate jumpoff for any budding relationship.

P.S.S. Loved the episode (except for the ease of how Noah took the weapons and the improbability of Carol getting hit by the only car on the road [although, maybe they sped up to hit her – the way the Grady people (Gradients? Gradyites? Gradys?) acquire new blood seems like it could be a little nefarious]). Can’t wait for next episode. So excited. Except not because there are only two left until midseason finale 🙁

An excellent line – when Noah said – ‘They have people, and guns….’ And Daryl simply says “so do we”. I’d guess Ricks group has been through a bit more than Dawn and the Gradies… they too will soon learn, they are fucking with the wrong people.!!!!
The Daryl and Carol duo can only get better (if she survives, and stays with the group) – loved the flashbacks, the concept of these 2 being the same – but totally different from past to present… just works !
It will be great when Beth and Daryl finally see each other again… not the best ‘love interest’ concept from the show – but the 2 of them were excellent together – in a different way than Carol and Daryl are excellent together. He makes Beth’s character MUCH more interesting…

Not a fan of Abraham btw – but loved him bashing Eugene up at the end of last week – lying bastard deserved more than that. Never liked that clown. Especially after he was peeping at the Abe and Suzzy Crabgrass while they were getting it on.

I love The Walking Dead series, and as a faithful reader of the comic books, season 5 has really made me love the show even more! I wasn’t sure how this episode would play out, but my, oh my, it was excellent. First, I really enjoyed the story, and how it was told. Suspense ruled the hour, and brought back just how dangerous the walkers really are. I really enjoyed the flashbacks of Carol and the telling of her history telling, along with the imagery and figurative use of smoke/fire, and being “Consumed”.
As far as NR & MMB’s performance, it was on point. Their dedication to the series, and their tight bond in real life truly shows in their work, and leaves me with some serious “feels” for these characters who I have become invested in over the last 5 seasons. Anyway, enough love fest of TWD from me, and though I said this prior to Hardwick on Talking Dead, despite it being the middle of a zombie apocalypse, always remember to look both ways before crossing!!!

Although I liked the episode it seems like a fill-in episode. The writers had to get to the point of explaining in detail who was with Daryl outside the church after they just offed all the termies. It was obvious to me after the “Stabtown” episode. So as far I was concerned this episode had little information I hadn’t already deduced from previous episodes. I find it odd that Atlanta has now practically emptied of walkers after just five short years. You would think a large metro area would take longer. I’ll chalk that up to my having to completely suspend even fictional scifi disbelief to even watch this show.

I also assumed that Noah was behind Daryl, also that Neither Beth nor Carol would wait for an all clear sign to come out into the open. So in that way, it filled in the gap, and filled in some gaps in Carol’s travels. But I cannot agree that this was just filler.

It would not be the same if we showed the Carol scenes in order.

The ups and downs, victories & tragedies do not reflect how Carol feels about the whole thing. “I don’t think we get to save anyone anymore,” in the wake of saving everyone from Terminus, and saving Father Gabriel, while in the process of trying to save Beth.

Also, I think the bombing of Atlanta might have had something to do with the walkers being purged from the city streets.

Another thought, If they are close enough to see the tank, are they also close enough to the nursing home where they left half the guns?

I believe this episode was about how “consumed” both Daryl and Carol have been within their own minds because of all the abuse they both experienced from someone who was suppose to love and care for them. They are finally beginning to open up to each other just a bit. I think that the developing story between them is just now starting to develop and unravel and we will see a strong bond. A bond that is even stronger then the one we see now. That is my hope. I do not want to see the demise of Carol before the development of this couple as an unbeatable team. One can only hope.

Hey, I might have misheard, but did Carol utter a certain not-for-cable word when the walker fell on her when they were chasing Noah? If this is the case, then this is even more annoying that they are allowing this now and they censored Rick at the end of Season 4.